TheBigUpshot

Tell me that’s not a great title. It inspires the imagination. Magnetic cows? Some kind of robot, perhaps? Large enough to be visible from space? About to crush Manhattan under an Iron Hoof? I’m sold! Tell me more!

I hope you are as excited as I was because then I can have the pleasure of completely disappointing you.

Some people used satellite images (science via Google Earth!) to tabulate the preferred orientation of cows. They tend to align north-south. The scientists did the obvious corrections for wind, sun and local distractions (like ponds for drinking). It implies that cows have a sense of magnetism, like pigeons. Moo.

What are the global implications? Could cows find their way back to Capistrano? I don’t know. The motivations of our bovine friends are inscrutable. But I wonder if the researchers knew about Cow Magnets.

Cow magnets are big, powerful magnets that ranchers feed to cows. The magnets sit in one of the cow’s stomachs and if the cow eats a nail or a piece of barbed wire, the magnet keeps it in the first stomach so it doesn’t end up tearing up the whole digestive tract. Cows are very intelligent.

Here’s my question: How likely is it that the cow is facing north because that’s the preferred alignment of the 4 inch hunk of magnet in its stomach? I imagine I’d be pretty likely to face north if I had one of those in my belly.

-The Jester

Tags: Humor, Science //